Super Spender

Chapter 804: Chapter 799: New Battleship (Part 2)_1

Setting the thought aside for now, Finn Lewis pondered a bit and finally selected an engine with exceptional comprehensive data. Its exchange price was 900,000 credits.

The exchange price was about three times higher than the engines currently used by the Galactic Federation, but the performance didn’t reach three times as much. It was a bit more than double, yet even so, the gap in overall performance resulted in a huge disparity in strength between the two sides. @@novelbin@@

He might as well go ahead and use this type of engine. Once the engine issue was resolved, the rest was much simpler. This was the main engine, the primary power source for the entire spaceship. As for the other warp engines and faster-than-light engines, they could all draw energy directly from this main engine.

“I will exchange for 500 such engines,” Finn Lewis thought for a moment and then bluntly said. Five hundred engines amounted to 4.5 billion credits, which almost spent a quarter of his credits in hand.

Finn Lewis still had other items to exchange, “As for raw materials, like the warship body manufacturing technology and so on,” he paused and continued to inquire.

“We are not too worried about raw materials, but Your Highness, my opinion is that we should exchange for another technology, a powerful protective force field generation technology. Although the Federation also has similar technology, it is not as strong as this one,” Luna Starfield said straightforwardly.

Following Luna Starfield’s words, a holographic projection immediately appeared in front of Finn Lewis. He knew about force field generation technology, and once the projection of Luna Starfield’s mentioned technology appeared, Finn Lewis understood that the exchange credits for this force field technology were not high—100,000 credits, which meant it perfectly rounded up the engine’s price to a million.

“Your Highness, if we have this force field generation technology, it means our warships can save a lot of materials, and traveling through the cosmos will be much easier,” Luna Starfield introduced, and immediately afterward projected the warship that utilized this force field technology. This was a brand-new warship design, and upon seeing it, Finn Lewis’s eyes widened in amazement.

In Finn Lewis’s impression, or rather, according to Earth’s concept, warships, especially cosmic warships, were supposed to be massive and sealed. Entering from space required passing through an intermediary airtight door to balance pressure and other factors.

But the warship that now appeared was entirely different. It wasn’t at all what Finn Lewis imagined a warship would be. If previous warships Finn Lewis saw still had some semblance to his idea of a warship, then this one had absolutely nothing in common with any warship he could imagine.

It looked more like a keel of a warship wrapped in a layer formed by a protective force field. It was described as the keel because its exterior lacked the outermost protective layer common to traditional warships. It was completely open to the air—yes, open-air—and what separated this open-air warship from the void of space was the protective force field.

By way of analogy, traditional warships resembled a sealed iron box in which people live. But this warship left only the bottom layer of the iron box, where people could walk, while the other three sides were all covered with the protective force field.

“What if there’s a problem with the force field?” Finn Lewis asked, dumbfounded. He had seen such force field-protected warships in the Galactic Federation, but they weren’t constructed entirely in this manner. They also had sealed doors, but when not in danger, they could activate the protective force field, making it easier for ships and fighters inside to leave the warship.

“Your Highness, firstly, this force field generator is extremely stable and almost never malfunctions. The probability of it failing is even lower than us warping directly into the interior of a star after a jump through space,” Luna Starfield explained.

“No matter how small, there’s still a chance of it happening, isn’t there?” Finn Lewis said, somewhat speechlessly.

“Well, let me put it this way, if it does malfunction, or if the force field is breached by the enemy, replacing it with the most advanced armor right now—its fate wouldn’t be much better. Besides, by designing it this way, we can save a significant amount of cost. After all, the force field itself is weightless. The spaceship will be smaller and lighter, which means a higher utilization rate for the engines,” Luna Starfield quickly said.

“No, that won’t do. I’m afraid of dying,” Finn Lewis responded, somewhat speechless. The concept was very trendy, but he was very much afraid of death. Just thinking about it was enough to understand—if the force field failed, one could find themselves drifting off into space in a matter of minutes.

“Moreover, I would rather exchange for more advanced engines that provide more power and have a layer of protective armor. However, I am aware of the uses and advantages of this force field, such as ease in deploying and retrieving fighters from the warship,” Finn Lewis pondered and then spoke.

“Your wisdom is commendable, Your Highness,” Luna Starfield offered a rare bit of flattery. Finn Lewis was somewhat familiar with this concept—the force field was somewhat like a magical barrier from mythological stories, where the inside and outside were two different worlds. Inside there was gravity, air, and temperature just like on Earth, but outside was the expanse of space. Most importantly, this was a layer visible to the naked eye, transparent, but not solid; one could simply pass through it to get inside.

Therefore, whether it be space fighters or small destroyers and reconnaissance ships carried by a first-class warship, or other small warships, all could take off directly from the hangar, or fly into space and then land in the hangar, and people could exit from within. Unlike the traditional method, which required passing through a sealed door.

The deployment speed of fighters or other craft was naturally much more advanced than the traditional model.

“Let’s do it this way. We should still have the necessary armor, but it can be designed to be largely retractable normally, using this kind of force field. However, when needed, the armor should still be able to be deployed,” Finn Lewis thought for a moment and suggested a compromise.

“Your Highness, the strength of this energy protection force field can be adjusted. It can become as solid as a physical wall. No, it can be even more solid than ordinary armor,” Luna Starfield explained, a bit helplessly.

“Ugh, no matter how solid it is, it almost seems transparent and doesn’t look sturdy at all. Just go with what I said, can we produce it?” Finn Lewis immediately asked.

“We can produce it. If that’s the case, then Your Highness, we will need to spend an additional 50 million credits.”